Sammy Apollo Kapiʻikauinamokuonalani Amalu (1917–1986) was a Kanaka Maoli descendant of a Hawaiian high chiefess, socialite, ex-con, and columnist with The Honolulu Advertiser.
[3][4] Playing the part of a Swiss-based syndicate, Amalu is popularly known for his role in a multi-million-dollar real-estate hoax called the "Sheraton Deal," where he was able to fool wealthy business tycoons who held large swaths of Hawaiian land into believing that the deal was legitimate.
[7] While Amalu was playing the role of a syndicate, he was able to garner representation through the real-estate firm of Milton Beamer and Ann Feltzer, which aided in his successful endeavor to fool big money.
On their wedding day in November 1956, Amalu failed to show up to the altar, claiming that he had been abducted by his brother in Texas, who disagreed with the marriage.
Mrs. Tomberlain then filed an annulment and cut financial ties with Amalu as the $45,000 check he used to purchase their home in San Francisco also bounced.
[10] In January 1946, The Honolulu Advertiser printed a story in the society section that spoke of Sammy Amalu's marriage to an Italian princess named Maria Anastasia di Torlonia.
According to the article, Princess Maria was the daughter of Mrs. Drexel Palmer-Hyde from Philadelphia and Prince Vittorio Alesandro di Torlonia.
According to Krauss, Amalu seemed surprised by the article written in 1946 and claimed to have been married three years before to a Mrs. Irmgard Spaur von Bohlen in Jamaica.
While incarcerated at Folsom Prison in 1967, serving time on embezzlement charges, Amalu gained a position as a columnist for the Honolulu Advertiser.
He made his way into this position by writing letters to his former Punahou School classmate and the editor of the advertiser, Mr. Thurston Twigg-Smith.
Some of Amalu's fans made their pleas to the then Governor of California, Ronald Reagan, in hopes of garnering his support to overturn the decision.
Sixteen years before his passing, Amalu published his own obituary, which read: “Sing no sad songs over my mortal dust.